


Sword of Time Wrap Up

by MetaCat (OtherCat)



Category: Meta - Fandom, Story Wrap Up, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Dark fic, Id Fic, Meta, Multi, Worldbuilding, Writing, vent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-28 06:33:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11412246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OtherCat/pseuds/MetaCat
Summary: Sometimes, I write extensive "wrap ups" for long fic I've completed. This is the wrap up forthe sword of time will pierce our skinsa Shiro/Keith/Lance dark fic in an AU setting where Keith=Lotor.





	Sword of Time Wrap Up

_[the sword of time will pierce our skins](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8051449/chapters/18444331) _ was a project I started in 09-16-2016 and ended on 07-05-2017. It was in part a “vent” project begun shortly after a kerfuffle I was involved in, in the Voltron Legendary Defender fandom. Aside from working out my feelings about the kerfuffle, the purpose of the project was to explore some themes that are either not addressed or (in my opinion) not adequately addressed in dark fic of this particular type. I wanted to explore certain kinks and critique others. I also wanted to see if I could write longer chapters. (My usual word count is around 2000 to 3000+ words per chapter. I am slightly envious of people able to crank out longer chapters.) It was quickly nicknamed “the horrible fic which is horrible,” and titled with a line from the M*A*S*H themesong, “Suicide is Painless.”

The biggest problem I have with dark fic is that very often it’s a brutal slog through endless despair with no relief. This definitely has a place and purpose in dark fic, but my essential problem with the brutal slog is that the character almost never contemplates the most self-evident thing when in a situation where “no hope and will never get better,” is the norm. The self-evident thing I’m talking about here is suicide. It’s very rare for a character to attempt suicide, unheard of for suicide to be discussed or for steps being taken to prevent it. Even when the situation is so dire the victim character is nearly catatonic from fear and depression. Even when the abuser should be aware that suicide is a possibility. We often don’t even see a moment where the victim _chooses not to_ commit suicide.

On the occasions when I read dark fic, I find this to be unrealistic and extremely upsetting. I want that discussion/admission to take place; otherwise I get frustrated with the story and lose immersion/sympathy for the characters. (I should point out here that when I roleplayed I’d freak the dungeon/gamemaster out because if my character was put in a situation that was horrifying or dire, she’d attempt suicide. I say “attempt” because the gm would generally pull bullshit rules out of his ass rather than let me kill the character. I still feel that a mentally unbalanced priestess stuck in a pocket dimension where she can’t contact her god--the being keeping her compos mentis--is fully justified in jumping out of a very high tower. Also, I hate Ravenloft. In addition, never have an npc beg me to kill them, unless you actually want me to mercy kill them. You should have known better Kent.)

So, I decided to start off with Our Pobrecito attempting suicide, and Our Abuser being kind of extremely freaked out about it. We’re introduced to the basic character dynamics and some of the backstory. (This was apparently confusing for some readers. One of them even accused me of leaving things out due to cowardice, which made absolutely no sense. They should never read _Nine Princes in Amber_ because the opening of the damn thing reads like it’s in the middle of the story, instead of the first book in the series--which it is. Roger Zelazny was a genius.)  I think I could have done a smoother job of it, given how many steps from canon the story is, but I really liked the imagery and felt trying to explain too much too soon would be insulting the reader’s intelligence by holding their hand and guiding them through the AU scenario.

Generally speaking in dark fic, the abuser is strictly evil, inhuman and unsympathetic. This is perfectly understandable and valid. Sometimes an attempt is made to explain why the character is evil, inhuman and unsympathetic, and this is also valid. My main critique for the former is that sometimes the abuser is acting extremely out of character “because dark fic” instead of “because they are extremely fucked up.” (I get really, really upset when a character is Suddenly! Evil.) My main critique for the latter is that the attempt at creating a sympathetic villain is a little heavy handed and absolves the abuser instead of illustrating “this person is fucked up and this is why.” 

And boy are my Abusers in this fic Fucked Up. Keith is the result of a millennia-old program to recreate the personality of a singular individual. (A concept I mostly pulled from C.J. Cherryh’s _Cyteen_ and _Regenesis_. I have strong feelings about Ari Emory and azi.) He does not have a strong sense of agency, was trained to think of himself as a non-person and his morals align on an Orange/Blue axis. Shiro is being partially mindcontrolled and extremely codependent, in addition to also being suicidal. Both abusers are clearly Up To Something, but you aren’t supposed to figure out what because of Unreliable Narrator. Shiro is still Shiro, Keith is still Keith but they are both bags-of-weasels crazy.

The “kinks” I wanted to work with in this fic were mind control, training and dollification. (I have almost no interest in “dollification” which involves objectification and extreme passivity, but someone I know is, and I wanted to see how it would work if the abuser was the one wanting to be objectified. Mostly because of a “flipped roles” situation in Lillith Saintcrow’s Jill Kismet books where a demon was actively forcing a demon hunter he was allied with to dom him. It did not work, but I thought could see a way it could.) I tried to do a decent set up of the situation, but I wasn’t clear enough where Keith’s preference lay. There were also a bunch of minor things I wanted to include, which are mostly up in the tags.

Some “kink critique” I stuck in was the tendency toward size queening and usually rendering the victim in story with smaller er…tackle. There’s nothing wrong with size queening, mind. It’s just a little silly to me and reminds me of certain yaoi tropes. (Which also seem silly to me.) The critique takes the form of xenojunk: Galra have small, thick penises with a fringe that swells, forming a knot. Keith finds male human junk to be both hilarious and intriguing. (Note: did you know human dude junk is on the big end tacklewise? Most animals do not have such proportionally large junk.)

Another critique I have is that a lot of “dark fic” doesn’t have very much in the way of plot, which in the case of longer fics, is kind of boring. Once you’ve repeated the scenario with variations a few times, it seems like it would be unsatisfying to read. I generally like things to happen in my fics! And the same repetitive pattern is not “happening.” Also, a lot of the time, there’s no sense of a larger world, with people in it. (This is a tendency in a lot of fan fic, not just limited to dark fic. It’s as if the writer is a little afraid to create characters outside of the canon characters for the canon characters to interact with.)

What I like in a story is detailed and complex stories with intrigue and lots of activity and interaction. I’m pretty pleased that the readers liked the political intrigue and general twists and turns to plot. (I’d like to reiterate to the one person who was pleased that it “wasn’t just porn” that in fact it was top to bottom porn, if you happen to find political intrigue and MilSf to be sexy.) I’m a little surprised though that no one noticed the Pidge/Lance relationship I hinted at developing. Many of the readers seemed mostly focused on Keith and Lance, failing to react to the wringer I was putting poor Pidge through.

Some recurring themes: Okay so I apparently really like unreliable narrator situations! And stealth-deprogramming. (It’s come up before in more detail in my long fic [_contra legem_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/276602/chapters/438325).) The idea that you can’t let someone know you’re actually helping them because it might set off an “alarm” of some kind is interesting to me, so I put it in. I also did the Thing where Character A does not know that Character B is engaged in subversive activities and find out about it only when Character B tells them or feeds them enough clues. (I’ve done this before, again in more detail in both _contra legem_ and [_two for mirth_.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5162840/chapters/11890364)) Also, I played around some with the concept of a character being deliberately, literally programmed and also Double Bind Situations Suck Dog Balls And Will Drive You Insane, which is a Favorite Point of mine to make. In addition, I played around with world building and Aliens Being Extremely Alien.   

I’m overall happy with how the story came out, though there were some things I didn’t include that I really wanted to. For instance, one idea I had toward the end was ending the fic with a battle between Zarkon and Voltron, with Shiro subbing as the pilot for Blue. (I didn’t think it would work though, ultimately.) Another idea I had was Keith actually succeeding in Suicide by Cop, but that would have been pretty bad for Shiro. If I had gone through with it, or any other variation where Keith died, there would have been an epilog where they find Keith’s replacement clone, and they have to decide whether to respect Keith’s wished and commit infanticide, or rescue bittyclone!Keith from being turned into the next Demon Prince. I left it with an open ending, where it’s known that Zarkon has strange and terrible plans for the universe and his Empire, and Allura has been directed into an alliance with Keith and the Blade of Mamora.  

**Author's Note:**

> Note: I often refer to characters in crapsack situations as "pobrecito/pobrecita," by the way. Deal with it. ♠


End file.
